The betting has begun on this year’s selection for the Literature prize (though bear in mind that bookie’s favorites rarely prevail). Ladbroke’s has Oz at 4/1; Algerian novelist Assia Djebar at 5/1; Juan Goytisolo at 6/1; Joyce Carol Oates and Philip Roth at 7/1; Syrian poet Adonis at 8/1; and Thomas PynchonItalian scholar Claudio Magris, Italian novelist Antonio Tabucchi and Haruki Murakami all at 9/1.Guardian
Awards
Briefs
* Barnes & Noble named Louise Penny‘s THE BRUTAL TELLING as their sixteenth “Recommends” program main selection. The pick also marks three in a row for publisher Voice (following August’s The Day the Falls Stood Still, by Cathy Marie Buchanan and July’s The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane, by Katherine Howe), a first for any single imprint. * In the UK, The Bookseller reports that Nielsen BookScan data shows sales of almost 551,000 copies for Dan Brown’s THE LOST SYMBOL in the first five days on sale. * Writers Edwidge Danticat and Deborah Eisenberg and poet Heather McHugh are among […]
As Predicted, Oprah to Pick Uwem Akpan's Story Collection
The metadata posted last month made Uwem Akpan’s SAY YOU’RE ONE OF THEM the odds-on favorite as Oprah Winfrey’s new book club selection (a Little, Brown book, available in 14.99 paperback and 23.99 hardcover editions). The Washington Post confirmed it yesterday, saying that additional information was accidentally leaked. The first version of the story named Ingram as the leaker; the version in today’s paper simply blames a “book distribution company.” Oprah Winfrey Show spokesperson Angela DePaul told the Post, “We don’t comment on advance speculation. Oprah announces her book club selections on her show and shares her reasons for choosing […]
Shortlists and More
The FT/Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year shortlist was announced, comprising: Lords of Finance, by Liaquat AhamedGood Value, by Stephen GreenImagining India, by Nandan NilekaniThe Match King, by Frank PartnoyAnimal Spirits, by George Akerlof and Robert ShillerIn Fed We Trust, by David Wessel The winner will be named October 29. And the Center for Fiction (formerly the Mercantile Center) announced the shortlist for their first novel prize (formerly the John Sargent Sr. prize): American Rust, by Philipp MeyerThe Cradle, by Patrick SomervilleTinkers, by Paul HardingThe Vagrants, by Yiyun LinWoodsburner, by John Pipkin Also, nature-reference publisher Waterford Press will move […]
More On Booker
Adam Foulds’ THE QUICKENING MAZE, the one Booker nominee that had not been licensed for publication elsewhere in the English-speaking world (with only one territory, Holland, reported as sold so far), was quickly licensed to Michael Schellenberg at Knopf Canada yesterday, by Zoe Pagnamenta, in conjunction with Anna Webber at United Agents. Our declaration yesterday that either Random UK or Little Brown UK would be the Booker-winning publisher was just an oversight rather than our characteristically dry commentary on how the betting favorite fares. (Harper UK published nominee Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall through Fourth Estate, as we did note.) But […]
Booker Shortlist Announced
The six finalists for the prize–with the winner to be named October 6–are: A S Byatt, The Children’s Book (Chatto and Windus)J M Coetzee, Summertime (Harvill Secker)Adam Foulds, The Quickening Maze (Jonathan Cape)Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall (Fourth Estate)Simon Mawer, The Glass Room (Little Brown UK)Sarah Waters, The Little Stranger (Virago) Release